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Why I don't like See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey....
And why I'm not doing an Animated Atrocity review on it. When I announced that I was making an Animated Atrocity review, dozens of people demanded to know why I hated that episode or just flat out told me to not review it. I didn't want to disappoint that many people so I've decided not to review it as an Animated Atrocity, but I guess I should at least elaborate my problems on it. First of all, I don't exactly hate it. It's on a similar level to Ball of Revenge--more dislike than outright visceral hatred. The biggest reason I wanted to take it on was due to its strobe effects that have the possibility of causing seizures. This was years after the "Electric Solder Porygon" incident, so we knew what those kinds of lighting effects could do, and they use it at least twice. But, unlike "Electric Soldier Porygon" there are more things wrong with it than just strobe effects. A lot of people are mixed on the singing. It's pretty hit and miss for me. While the main cast do a very good job, and I love whoever they got to do the voice of the gnome, the episode suffers whenever the extras are forced to sing, especially in the beginning. And while the singing is strong, the same cannot be said about the lyrics which mostly rely on far too much repetition. I know the 22 minutes of pure song can be difficult to write for, but still, try a little bit harder. Even so, I can tolerate that if it sounds nice. It's the story and the moral where this episode falls for me. The gnome offers to rid all of the evil in the world if the Powerpuff Girls give up their powers. They don't even question if this guy can be trusted, and yet they decide whether or not it's a good idea for a solid two minutes. The pacing is all over the map. Sometimes the story is too slow, establishing things that we already know, and sometimes it's too fast. The gnome is evil because... he has arched eyebrows and makes people wear uniforms. If that's the case then my elementary school teacher was evil. This would be more excusable if, like I said prior, there wasn't so much padding, including taking like three minutes to even get the Powerpuff Girls into the episode. The people were never shown to be in any sort of misery. I understand that there is a very freedom vs security message in this episode, and while admirable, it just doesn't do it very well. It does not show either the benefits of freedom or the consequences of sacrificing freedom for security. It's a very serious case of "show, don't tell" that's going on in this episode. Then there's the moral. The Powerpuff Girls confront the gnome and start singing about how you can't have the good without the bad (while stretching very hard for examples--you can't have the fork without the spoon; you can't have boys without girls). Then at the end the Powerpuff Girls start singing "why can't we all get along" WITH the villains. Jeeze, I don't know why you can't all get along girls. It's a mystery. Any message it was trying to teach was undermined here. It's common knowledge that this episode was banned. A lot of people see it as a communism vs. democracy sort of thing. Even if that were the case (as like I said, it's more of a freedom vs security thing), Americans haven't exactly been all that receptive to the ideals of communism. No, I am 100% sure that this episode was banned because it's strobe effects have a very real possibility of causing seizures. I will give credit where credit is due though: it sounds very nice. The instrumentals shine through, and like I said, I love that gnome's VA. It allows me to look passed the repetition (to a certain degree), and that does take a lot of talent and a lot of effort. The cinematography is also quite nice, with some interestingly trippy visuals. Although the part with the dancing steaks is a little too far out there for me. I understand that a lot of people not only like this episode, but LOVE it. Honestly, it's sort of a guilty pleasure to me. I do not by any stretch find this a good episode, but I love the pieces here. It's definitely admirable that they took upon an extremely mature moral. They just didn't do it well enough. I mean, it wasn't outright butchered or delusional like "Seahorse Seashell Party." It's more in the line of "Feeling Pinkie Keen." It was an episode that knew what it wanted to say, but didn't quite know how to say it. So to answer someone's question (I forget your name), yeah I do have a guilty pleasure episode from a show besides Friendship is Magic - "See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" from the Powerpuff Girls. Sorry for an disappointment given from the lack of a proper review of this episode. If you like the episode, like it, I'm not going to stop you. Or judge you. Category:Miscellaneous